Chronicle File PhotoPeople that registered receive food from the Second Harvest Gleaners Food Bank truck on November 21 at Fifth Reformed Church in Dalton Township.

Muskegon-area families are no stranger to the pain caused by the Great Recession.

More than two years after one of the most tumultuous periods in our nation's economic history — the Great Recession officially began in late 2007 and ended in the summer of 2009 — many families in Muskegon County are struggling to get by.

They're making less money, their homes have dropped in value, they're driving fewer cars, and more and more of them are living in poverty, according to new U.S. Census Bureau Statistics.

“It's not surprising at all,” said Seandeep Dey, executive director of the West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission. “In fact, it is a reflection of what is happening statewide and nationally.”

Whether Muskegon County, and the state of Michigan, can rebound from the economic devastation largely depends on whether leaders at the local, state and national level can work together and create jobs, community leaders say. But with opinion polls showing high disapproval ratings for Congress and the direction of the country, the public is likely to remain skeptical that things will soon improve.

“The essence of government is to compromise,” Dey said. “More than ever, I think our country is so polarized. You don't need to be pro-business or anti-business, you need to come together and find common ground, and I don't know that we're doing that.”

A growing poverty rate was among the biggest impacts of the Great Recession in Muskegon County.

In 2010, Muskegon County's poverty rate for all families was 17.7 percent, according to the Census. That's a 50 percent increase from 2006, when 11.8 percent of families lived in poverty. Only Wayne County, home to the city of Detroit, had a larger percentage of families living in poverty.

Chronicle File Photo"There's such a great need," said Yvonne Morrisey, executive director of the Muskegon Housing Commission said in 2008 when talking about employment in the area. "You shouldn't have to leave your state to find employment." The Muskegon Housing Commission hosted job fair was in high attendance in 2008 .

The Census data analyzed by The Chronicle was available only for counties with a population of at least 65,000, meaning statistics weren't available for Oceana and Newaygo counties.

The high poverty rate doesn't surprise Capt. Stephanie Sawka, of the Muskegon chapter of the Salvation Army. She's seen the number of families seeking assistance skyrocket for everything from food to utility bills to house payments.

“It keeps going up because people are struggling to get by,” Sawka said. “We have people whose unemployment has run out and there's still no jobs in the area.”

While the pain in Muskegon County is great, counties throughout the state are feeling the weight of poverty, too. All but seven of Michigan's most populous counties saw the number of families living in poverty increase between 2006 and 2010.

That includes Ottawa County, where in 2006 just 2 percent of families were in poverty. As of 2010, 7.7 percent of families there were living in poverty, including 50.7 percent of households headed by a single mother with children.

Dey, of the West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission, said the changes reflect high unemployment.

Muskegon County, along with Michigan as a whole, used to be what Dey calls a “low-skilled, high wage” economy, but that has changed now that many manufacturing jobs have disappeared.

“You could graduate from high school and move right into the middle class,” he said. “You could get a job at a factory, a good paying job, buy a car, buy a house, and because of structural changes in our economy, especially in Michigan but also nationally, those jobs are pretty much gone, and that's reflected in the household income and high unemployment.”

Families in Muskegon County also have been hit by dropping home values.

David Medendorp, who has been selling homes in the Muskegon area for 27 years, says the declining values are one factor in a struggling housing market. In part, it's made some potential buyers shy away from the market over fear it's not a good time to invest.

Higher “employment certainly would help,” Medendorp said, adding that it's difficult for the unemployed to get loans. “If you don't have a job, you can't buy a house.”

In addition, declining values — along with uncertainty in the job market and consumer confidence — have cooled some potential buyers' enthusiasm, he said.

“If you knew that the house you bought in Roosevelt Park this year for $50,000 would be worth $65,000 in 18 months, if you don't own a house today, you would probably buy one,” he said.

But because home values are falling, “it's a really risky loan to take,” Medendorp said.

So is there any hope for an economic rebound, possibly to pre-recession levels, in Muskegon County?

Possibly, said Dan Rinsema-Sybenga, director of Business and Industrial Training at Muskegon Community College. Improving the situation, on a local, state and national level, will require business, elected officials and educators to work together.

One glimpse of hope: Fortu PowerCell Inc., a Swiss-German technology company, that is planning on building a plant in Muskegon Township where it will produce advanced batteries for a variety of uses, including transportation, alternative energy and electric power-grid storage.

Approximately 126 jobs are expected to be created once the first phase of the plant is in full production. Production is expected to begin by the fourth quarter of 2012.

Bringing Fortu to Muskegon took cooperation between state and local officials, and MCC wants to help by providing necessary training to applicants, Rinsema-Sybenga said.

Such partnerships will be needed to lure more employers to the area, he said.

AP File Photo

“I think that's going to take a collaboration of community leaders with foresight, business leaders willing to take risks and make investments, and an educational community that will make sure they are there to deliver the workforce to implement what the community calls for and the businesses invest in,” Rinsema-Sybenga said.

And with some residents, such as unemployed and displaced workers, feeling hopeless about the future, it's important that opportunities are created that extend to all members of the community, he said.

“While we have a vision of what we want our economy to be, we're only going to become prosperous if we have the right mentality,” he said, adding that the community needs to maintain a “positive attitude.”

Jane Johnson, director of the Department of Human Services for Muskegon, Mason and Oceana counties, says demand for services appears to be leveling off, but at a much higher level than in 2007.

From September 2010 to September 2011, the number of people in which DHS was providing assistance grew by .5 percent, Johnson said. That's much smaller when compared with the 6 percent increase in services between September 2009 and September 2010.

As leaders look for ways to get the economy back on track, it's important that people recognize that the vast majority of residents seeking state assistance are struggling not because of their own actions or choice, she said.

“We don't want to be blaming individuals for their circumstances when they've been created by the economic situation of the past few years,” Johnson said.

Instead, Johnson said, we all need to be asking ourselves this question: “How do we support one another and look for ways to grow opportunities for families to recover and be in a position to meet their own needs?”

Answering that, Johnson said, may help get Muskegon County back on better footing more quickly.